Chapter 13

 

The War comes to Richmond

Shirley plodded along at school, far from the perfect pupil, but diligent enough when the nuns were looking, and up for an antic or two when they weren’t. At the age of 12, the war in Europe was declared and the talk in the streets on a warm night as Summer approached revolved around the evils of Hitler and the Nazis; whose son, nephew or brother was enlisting and in what service. In the shops when Shirley fetched the messages for her mother, or tobacco for her father, the talk was that the Huns were at it again, and it was time to teach them a lesson for good. Shirley didn’t take too much notice. Inside the world of St Jimmies, and in the familiar blocks of Richmond’s community, life held much more thrilling and engrossing news items and ‘headlines’.

When she and Lorna reached Grade 8, their friendship network was large and sprawling. They were a magnetic duo, always in the middle of a group of hooting boys and girls at school, or after school on street corners where groups would congregate chatting to passing friends and the telegram boys, in between school and being called home for dinner.

Another exciting development that starting Grade 8 afforded the girls was the chance to join the ‘Children of Mary’. This most sacred and glamourous group imbued its members with a nun-like aura without any of the restrictions upon looking pretty and flirting with the opposite sex. It involved sitting together at Mass and singing the hymns that accompanied the ceremony. It also embraced the sacred flaunting of a soft, voluminous, knee length blue cape tied daintily at the neck, with hair decorated by a delicate lace mantilla. The angelic costume was the real attraction of the whole proceedings; the sky-blue cloak made one feel like a high priestess; creating a vision of holiness as it swept majestically around them as they walked chit-chatting down the tattered streets of Richmond towards the church – the white lace perched on their curls lending an almost matrimonial air to the outfit.  In fact, it would be worn by some of the girls over their wedding dress on their wedding day years later. Wearing The Children of Mary outfit was a serious and solemn business.

When they began their first rehearsal after the Summer, there were a few new girls in the legion; one of them was a new face in Richmond sporting a shy smile and luminous curly dark red hair. Lorna and Shirley noticed her straight away sitting with Mary Scully and introduced themselves during the break in singing. Lorna observed brightly, ‘I love the colour of your hair. Shirley and I think it is so pretty. What’s your name?’

The young girl bowed her head and smiled slightly, wringing her hands against her knees and looking wide eyed, terrified and friendly at the same time.

‘My name is Thelma. We just moved down to Richmond a few weeks back. Dad had a farm in Silvan, but he had to give it up.’

‘Oh, how d’ya like Richmond so far?  A lot of people don’t like to mention that they live here. But we have a great time with our bunch of ‘china plates’. You hafta stay on for the Learn to Dance after this. It’s all Victor Sylvester tunes… and after Sunday morning Mass we have a morning tea and everyone  brings a plate. The girls are a lot of fun!’ enthused Lorna reassuringly.

Thelma laughed shyly as Shirley and Lorna were joined by Kathleen Martin, Joycie Goodwin and others. They entertained Thelma with stories and jokes before rehearsals. All the girls were extremely excited to be old enough to join the Children of Mary for many reasons Firstly, because it was something to do on a Thursday night, secondly, it seemed such a devoutly mysterious thing to do, thirdly, the boys always took a second look as you swept down the street past them on the way to rehearsal; finally and most importantly, it was followed by the weekly ‘Learn to Dance’.  The hall’s rafters transformed from reverberating holy arias to echoing a buzzing, bright-faced ballroom where enormously popular tunes by Victor Sylvester such as ‘I’ve got my eyes on you’ and ‘You’re dancing on my heart’ helped choreograph the eager polished shoes and cheery slightly worn heels of the excited attendees. And it only cost a threepence to cover the electricity!

After that, Thelma was a regular member of the tightknit group of girls who were at the centre of the social network of St Jimmy’s. Thelma, being a year older, was already working in a Haberdashery shop in Bridge Road. Shirley and Lorna provided the major entertainment, but there were a few other characters who kept the various gatherings jolly. There were the pictures on a Friday night, if a few pennies could be found to support such expeditions. They went to the pictures at ‘The Spit and Dribble’ or ‘The Cin’; both in Bridge Rd, and the ‘Burnley’ in Swan Street. The movies changed each week, so it was possible to see a new movie every time. Most churches also had a dance on a Sunday night with a band. There was Cup Eve Ball, the Parish ball, the St Patrick’s Day ball. All were causes for great excitement. In Winter, there was football on a Sunday at Survey Paddock, and games of tennis could also fill a quiet day.  There were town fetes, annual church picnics up to the Dandenong ranges, walks into town to window shop, tram trips down to St Kilda beach for a picnic and swim, or just visiting each other’s houses for afternoon tea, and listening to the radio – all these were fun and free.

The girls loved the pool in the warm weather where they hung out with the boys from school, and bought two-in-one ice creams to share as a special treat. On warm nights when the light did not fade until almost 8.30pm, Lorna and Shirley would tell Mr Boland that they were going to play tennis and leave on their bikes with their tennis racquets and balls,  wondering why he never noticed that they got home well after dark, and there were no lights at the tennis court. Instead of practising their tennis, Shirley and Lorna would be flirting with some of the local lads down in the park next to the courts. Donny Ritchie, Des Leonard, Booa Randall, Terry Donohue, Kevin Gleason, Ronnie Norton to name just a few. It was hilarious and about as daring as good catholic girls the late 1930s in the slums of Richmond could be.

Life began to take on a tinge of pre-adult excitement. Soon, they would be out working themselves and Shirley could not wait to leave the regimented rows of St James, as much as she had grown to love the sisters of St Joseph, it felt like time to be a woman. She didn’t like the sound of the factory work that her sisters did, and Shirley’s mother made special plans for her to attend business school and learn how to type. Grade Eight also bought other stirrings. Boys started to look a whole lot more exciting to Lorna and Shirley, and they started hanging out even more devotedly on the corner of Highett Street and Griffith Street, and any friendly boys from St Jimmies or St Ignatius who wandered by, would stop to chat and joke. One day, she started to notice a young man she hadn’t seen before coming past on his telegraph bike flicking a shy glance at the noisy group as he cycled by on his way to deliver his swag of telegrams. His hair was a dark, sparkling red, and curls on the top of his head caught the breeze handsomely as he skilfully steered his bike through the ruts and the crowds. She soon found out he was Thelma’s older brother, Fred. Amidst the laughter and the jokes, Shirley always enjoyed watching him sail by. He was a real good looker.

Chapter 14

Dancing and Fred Milton

Increasingly the war started to make murmurings in their lives, and some of the older boys were talking about lying about their age and going to enlist. At first, life seemed to go on like normal, apart from the daily headlines, nothing seemed to be happening anywhere other than in Europe. Still, there were more and more posters supporting the war appearing around the streets, and men in uniform sauntering around the streets became commonplace. Rationing became a real and difficult part of life and if Shirley thought there wasn’t much food around at Griffith Street before the war, then things definitely took a turn for the worse as the war really started to take hold.

Apart from that distant excitement, there was some homegrown excitement for all those in Grade 8. Their first official dance had been organised and it was going to be at the Richmond Town Hall in the first week of December. It caused a great flurry of the sewing machine in Lorna’s house and a search through the local dress shops for Shirley, in order to find something respectable enough to wear to such a grand occasion.

To practice for the soiree there was of course great concentration required at the ‘Learn to dance’ every Thursday night.

It was there that Shirley first had her opportunity to forge her friendship with Thelma and to flirt with that handsome telegraph boy brother of hers. The usual gang of boys that Shirley and Lorna had grown up with and kicked under the desks at school were there, wisecracking and guffawing, before they were all put into line by the stern, solemn ballroom dancing teachers. But there were a few new faces, and a few older boys that Shirley had noticed around the traps at ‘cin’ down on Bridge Road.

It was always an exciting evening, and Shirley brightly chatted and laughed with all of the boys as she made her way around with the pride of Erin, the Waltz and her favourite – the Foxtrot. Both Thelma and Fred came to the Learn to Dance, and both were painfully shy, although Thelma managed to talk really comfortably with the girls. Fred soon became a bit of a sweet joke between the girls, because he was so timid about making any conversation with his dance partners. Shirley was always full of cheek and was not to be deterred. Winking at Lorna when it was time to dance with Fred, she would whisper ‘Watch me make him blush!!’

Sweeping along to partner him, Shirley would reach out her dance arms, smile confidently, and cry ‘Hi – how are you Fred!!!???’ and wait for a reply.

Fred would immediately begin going red from the tips of his fingernails, until it spread relentlessly up his arms, joined below his shirt and exploded on to his freckled face, making his red hair look even more manifest atop a flaming face. Shirley’s girlfriends would giggle in muted hysterics, kindly camouflaging it as much as they could from Fred himself. Fred barely made an audible sound back to Shirley in response before it was time to move to the next partner. Yet, in time he looked less in pain, and more comfortably red faced, each time Shirley twirled his way.